April 18: Around 20 lakh people in Dharmapuri and Krishangiri districts are eagerly waiting the pipe-laying work for the Hogenakkal Drinking Water Scheme to start.

Locals here, who have long suffered the ill effects of fluorine in their drinking water, are hopeful that the 240-lakh litre tank will meet their requirements. Highly placed sources in the Tamil Nadu Water and Drainage Board (TWAD) told this newspaper that the pipe-laying work from the well on the Cauvery river-bed to the treatment plant would begin in less than a week’s time.

The scheme is a pet project of deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin and is funded largely by the Japan Bank of International Cooperation.

The 1,500 mm-diameter ‘mild steel’ pipes will be laid from the massive well on the river-bed to the treatment plant and from there to the 24 mld master balancing reservoir in Madam village. Sources said that the majority of the work of the seven-metre deep well on the roc-ky riverbed has been done as they had already reached the five-metre depth.

Following preliminary work that started in February, major work on the water treatment plant and the master-balancing reservoir that stands on 250 columns is also progressing at a rapid pace.

While the work at the intake well appears to be nearing completion before the scheduled six months, officials have also geared up to finish the treatment plant and tank works ahead of schedule.

Officials have attached op-timum priority to the project as it had earlier reached an impasse when the BJP government in Karnataka had opposed it.